Historic Day as new Limerick Tunnel is opened by Taoiseach
27 July 2010

Taoiseach Brian Cowen officially opened the Limerick Tunnel on Tuesday 27 July 2010. The tunnel is expected to take up to 27,000 vehicles per day off the streets of Limerick city. This could increase to 40,000.

The multimillion-euro project, which opened ahead of schedule, is part of the Southern Ring Road Phase 2 development, connecting the M7 Dublin and M20 Cork roads with the N18 to Galway and Shannon Airport.

The tunnel runs for 900 metres, 675m of which is under the Shannon, and the road network on either side includes 11 new access bridges, six underpasses and four interchanges.

The Limerick Tunnel was built by DirectRoute Ltd. DirectRoute Ltd is owned by Lagan, Roadbridge and Sisk (Irish construction companies),KBR and Strabag (international construction companies) and Bank of Scotland and First Irish Infrastructure Fund.